Thursday, January 20, 2011

Here they are – easy and delicious, spicy orange chicken wings, cleverly named (according to me anyway) after the spicy orange chicken served at Panda Express. By the way, this recipe has nothing to do with killing, riding, eating, rubbing, growing wings on, or otherwise abusing panda bears.

We are right smack in the middle of chicken wing eating season, and with the Super Bowl just around the corner (Go Jets!), I figured it was high time for a new wing fling. The recipe could not be simpler to make, and if you can somehow manage to whip up a batch of these oven-fried chicken wings to glaze, you'll be in sticky-finger-heaven.

Since this was my first time trying this, I went very basic, and was extremely happy with the results. It was very similar in taste and texture to the Panda orange glaze, and done so with no gloppy cornstarch, which is not very nice cold.

Next time I will try the additions of ginger and garlic, and maybe some toasted sesame seeds. In the meantime, I really hope you give these a try, and please let me know how your particular variations come out. Enjoy!

Dude... the Jets? Arch enemy of the Bills? ;)Thanks for the wing recipe. Wife's parents/family are in town this weekend and I'm making the Christmas Lasagna for them... and now maybe the wings. Thanks again for making it easy to impress my wife! Cheers

Even before you mentioned it, Chef, I was already thinking about the garlic - they do make Asian Chili paste with garlic, which should do the trick for most people with one less ingredient to worry about.

Love Orange Chicken/Beef and definitely going to try your take on it. Thanks.

I brought chicken wings and oranges home in anticipation of this recipe (not knowing what ingredients you intended to use). I can't believe I had all these ingredients in my kitchen and haven't put them together before!

As for the alternate ingredients, I took a bit of the sauce aside and used some ginger garlic paste. It gave a bit more of an Asian flavor but I really like the base ingredients by themselves best. This recipe is a keeper!

I didn't use any of the oranges I brought home but they won't go to waste. I will have fresh squeezed orange juice in the morning!

Hahahaha ... "I hate football, but I love football food." LOL, my favorite comment so far this year! BTW the wings look wonderful. Will give the recipe a try because I too love football food, but not the game!

Kelea: I'm gluten free and GF flour will work just fine. Any flour will do but I particularly like to use Indian besan flour which is made from ground baby chickpeas (chana dal.) That is the flour used to make pakoras so there is already a history of it being a great fry flour. I find rice flour a bit grainy unless it is mixed in equal parts with corn or tapioca starch but that is an easy option as those are easy flours to obtain.

Chef John: I loved that spicy orange chicken dish before I had to give up wheat and I miss it. I will be trying these wings soon (or perhaps try the sauce over cornstarch coated wok-fried chicken bits.) Thank you!!!

done it with the garlic ... a delight. My wife loves my cooking :)) Chef ... you are the best. Also maybe one day ... i'll send you some of my recepies maybe you'll find something you like in a romanian/asian/italian kind of fusion :))

hi chef john! first off, i really really enjoy your recipes and videos.so thanks for posting this spicy orange recipe, but i do have a quick question (and i think it's kind of a 'duh!' question hehehe!). Is rice vinegar the same as rice wine vinegar? Coz i'm planning on making it for dinner tonight and i have a bottle of rice wine vinegar in our pantry.

Chef, I made this according to the directions, but my sauce has an unmistakably burned/bitter taste. I let it boil, but stirred often, for 5 minutes. I used a really good quality orange marmalade (Robertsons.) The only thing that I might have done differently is that I used an Asian chili-garlic sauce--is that different from a sambal chili sauce? If so, could that make it bitter? And I made a half batch--would that make a difference? Anyhow, if you have any thoughts about what I should do differently, that would be great--I really want to get this one right!! Thanks!! (Karen)

Chef: Yes, actually, now that I taste the marmalade on it's own, it is a bit bitter (which works for using it on toast, but doesn't quite work for my sauce.) Also, because the chili sauce contains bits of garlic, I wondered if the high heat might have caramelized the garlic too much. I'll try it without next time. THANKS! (Karen)

Hi Chef John, first off, thanks for all the great recipes! Second, I want to make these for the SuperBowl this weekend, but I cant use flour for the oven fried part due to gluten intolerance, do you have any suggestions for a good alternative to wheat flour or can the oven frying be done without flour all together?

Thanks for the receipe! I made this but only realized halfway the preparation that I had the wrong kind or Orange marmelade - Bitter. Turned out the bitter is not very nice in this receipe, and also that its mostly the rind that has the bitter flavor. I removed the rind pieces and added some sugar - The result is absolutely awesome!

I had a bbq recently and got the idea to make a marinade out of hoisin sauce, soy sauce, onions, garlic, and sriracha sauce (instead of sambal or red pepper), minus the marmalade. I marinaded some regular cut up chicken pieces and made the sauce with all the previous ingredients and the marmalade, just how it's made here and painted the chicken as it was being bbq'd and it came out incredible, and translated perfectly. im about to make it again for my mom this mother's day!

Thanks for the recipe. I have a few questions though; how do we change the recipe if we want to cook less than 5 lbs (for example, 1 lb)? Also, I was using a toaster oven and how do we adjust for the recipe? Can these wings be cooked with a toaster oven or must we use a conventional oven? I tried adjusting this to a toaster oven by lowering the temp to 350 and the time to 20 minutes per side but it just came out a bit burnt and the flour was not quite cooked :(. it looked nothing like yours! helpp

Ah okay Chef John, then how do we figure out how to adjust the recipe for 1 lb in a conventional oven? Is it as simple as dividing the time by 5 and keeping the temperature the same? Thanks you're the best Chef John :) and hope to see your show soon!!

Chef John, nicely done! Been awhile since I've had this at Kung Foo Panda Express ;o) but it's mighty darn tasty. I took your advice and strained *most* of the pithy orange out of my marmalade. I picked the least chunky and it was still too much. I'll hit Safeway next time I'm in the neighbouring city. I didn't have any wings so I used chicken breasts cut into chunks. rather than bread them I marinated them in Chinese rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil and corn starch (seemed healthier) then fried in a wok coated in Pam before saucing. Yummmm. All the recipes I've tried from your Blog have been spot-on. I can't wait to try your other wing recipes. I truly appreciate the time you devote to your recipes/Blog and your expertise!!

*UPDATE* Got some "Safeway Select Seville Orange Marmalade" and made this again. Very good!! I also made a "similar version" using Thai sweet chili sauce in place of the marmalade and added some lime juice in place of some of the rice vinegar. After saucing the wings I added some finely chopped cilantro and tossed. Outstanding :o)

Hi chef, your videos are great, instructive and not overwhelming. Quick question on the chicken wings recipe. I noticed that when you made the sweet hot mustard wings, you cooked them at a higher oven temp (420) for 20 minutes per side. For the garlic ginger wings you cooked the wings at 400 for 30 minutes per side. Is there a reason for this? Also did you flour the chicken wings, for the traditional buffalo style recipe.

Restaurant quality. I did a half recipe by coating the wings with 1 TBS Flour, 1 Tbs corn starch, S+P. Made the sauce with Peach preserves 'cause that is what I had and added 1 TBS of garlic chili sauce. Very good. Even my spouse who bitches when the wings are not Frank's wings thought it they good.

Dear Chef - I just did your wings tonight and they were absolutely delicious!

I had two setbacks which I hope you can address:

1) The wings were not spicy enough following your recipe. Was I suppose to soak them with Frank's sauce while marinating them as well? You see, I followed both of the videos but was not sure if the chili sauce in addition to Frank's sauce was going to be too spicy?

2) I had a lot of sauce left over from your original recipe. Was I suppose to have that much left?

One quick suggestion: I actually glazed the wings while in the oven about 10 minutes before I pulled them out (since I like them crispy) and they actually looked just that like that Panda chain your talking about :) I wish that I could submit the photo on your blog!!!

I am just making a batch of wings now . I love the garlic ginger ... Everybody does ! In regards to the glazes I just taste test as I go and then decide if I need more or less of an ingredient . Your receipes are just fantastic ... Thanks di

These are among the best wings I have ever eaten. The first time I made these all I had was Peach preserves so that's what I used. Awesome! Then I made these with orange marmalade. Again Awesome, but not quite as good as with the Peach. I would encourage you to substitute either Peach or Apricot for the Orange and see of I am wrong. Whatever you choose, these will be great. Thanks for the recipe Chef John. You make me look more talented, more important and better looking than I deserve.

I wanted to try this recipe so I printed off the recipe to take home. I was sure I had orange marmalade in my pantry so I didn’t bother to check before I started to bake the wings. When I was ready to make the sauce, I realized not only didn’t I have the orange marmalade but I also had left the recipe I printed at the office. Pressed for time and too lazy to look it up on the laptop, I decided to use whatever I could find.

I had a small (sample size) jar of lemon jam and decide to use it. If I had to guess at the measurement, I’d say no more than a ½ a cup worth. To it I added ½ cup of yellow (because I didn’t have brown) sugar, a couple drops of soy sauce, about a tbsp of crushed fresh garlic and some salt and pepper, about a pinch of each. I place it on the burner to simmer. Since I didn’t have very much liquid in the pot, I added ½ a cup of water to help in the simmering process. I reduced the sauce and then added it to the wings once they were done. My girlfriend didn’t even notice the lemon; she said it tasted like a honey garlic wing.

These things were AMAZING!! Thanks so much for creating this awesome food blog that makes it 20x's easier to make recipes! I've yet to find one item on here that I've cooked that's turned out bad. Thanks so much John, keep the videos and recipes coming!!

Oh my gosh, best spicy/sweet ever. I didnt have the chili sauce/paste , so like your recommendation, I used red pepper flakes - So hot, my nose is burning, but in a good way. I wasn't rushing for water or milk like eating some other stuff (wanted too, but resisted the urge. So maybe instead of 2 Tablespoons of red pepper flakes, mix it with something not so hot, but still peppery. Even though they were too hot, I couldn't stop eating!

I didn't have orange marmalade either, but I did have homemade tangelo jelly. If people are worried about the bitterness, they should use homemade?

Also, I am still getting used to my electric oven and it cooked 2 pans in the first half hour! I was only at 350 degrees! Next time I will know to switch levels for pans, and maybe reduce temp to 300 degrees -weird! For the "2nd half hour" i just reduced it to 200 so the other side of the wing could get a little more brown.

Hello cheff john I'm soo excited to try this recipe! It looks amazing!! Just have couple questions,For this recipe do I dip wings in flour? And how long do I leave them in oven and wat degree? And do I season them? Thank you so much for the deliishes recipes , hope to hear from u soon!

Hello chef john,I'm very excited to try this recipe!! It looks amazing!! Just have couple questions,Do I dip wings in flour? How long do I leave them in oven ? And do I season them as we'll?Hope to hear back from you soon,Thank you for all the deliishes recipes !

for those who questioned not using flour in this recipe. I always prepare my wings from the EAT THE LOVE website that puts the wings in the frig over night coverd with an egg white/cornstarch mix,ture. They are called Korean chicken wings.

From the Department of For What It's Worth, I just made this sauce recipe with lime marmalade, which I had to order online. Local Costo (Novato) sells 3-packs of trimmed & split, organic chicken wing pieces--about 2 lbs per packet, useful for solo use. I use your oven-fried chicken wing recipe, and made this sauce and went to heaven.

I just started medical school so i've been very tired, but not too tired to take a break to try out this recipe! It's basically perfection. Thank you so much for this little ray of spicy orange sunshine!